Tuesday, September 28, 2010

25% of the Children's Park Re-Opens

One quarter of the Children’s Park has officially re-opened. The portion of the park that re-opened is the Amusement Area, located in the southeast corner of the park. It’s a compact area with a number of rides and games for small children.

The company that re-constructed the park, Bodi Group, should get kudos for the job they’ve done. It’s a first rate job, well designed and with a number of activities. Some of the rides include a ferris wheel, a Merry-go-round, a pirates ship, and bumper cars. Entry to the park is free but you have to buy individual tickets for each ride. Each ride costs about T2000 to T2500. They kept the small lake which existed before (and even kept the fish!). They are still working on parts of it – it looks like they will add a restaurant and picnic area. I like the fact that you can just stroll around for free even if you don’t want to go on the rides. Free parking is another nice bonus.

Now of course the big question is, what happens to the rest of the park? A Shangri-La hotel is rising up in the northeast corner of the park but there are still vast areas that have yet to be developed. I hold out hope that the rest of the area will remain a park in a true sense of the word, that is, an open space of grass, trees, walkways and playing fields. Bottom line is that the new amusement park is a great place to take small kids but its of limited interest for people over the age of 13 or 14. Let's hope that UB city authorities will reclaim the land from whoever owns it, keep it as a park, and open it to the general public.

In the meantime, the following are some pictures of the newly opened amusement park.